The Washington Post’s Greg Sargent is all excited about a new National Journal poll that he says shows “Blue collar whites do support Occupy Wall Street.” NJ’s write-up did not include the numbers, but Sargent contacted NJ for this nugget:
What Sargent, and NJ, fail to report, however, is the actual wording of the poll. It turns out NJ actually asked two questions to arrive at this result, neither of which ever even used the name “Occupy Wall Street.” Instead, in classic push poll fashion, we get these questions, in this order:
Q5. From what you know about these demonstrations against Wall Street, would you say you completely agree with the goals of the protestors, mostly agree, mostly DISagree, or completely disagree with their goals?
This is just as bad as the Time poll which described the protesters as against “the government’s bank bailout” and also failed to use the name Occupy Wall Street.
Why are polling organizations so afraid to just ask Americans what they think about the “Occupy Wall Street” protests? Why do they feel the need to prime respondents with sympathetic descriptors before asking them if the support the movement? Why not just ask, “Do you oppose or support the Occupy Wall Street protesters?”
